Hi Alphonse,

    I'm from Europe as well (Italy).
I do agree with everything Thomas said but I'd like to add something.

As far as anemia is concerned, here where I am, doctors are not allowed
to give drugs like the one Thomas suggested (Procrit makes the number of
red blood cells grow up) to people treated for Hepatitis C.

The same goes for white blood cells, which seems to be the problem in
your case (this because you said your doctor was concerned about
leukocytes). In this case, another drug would be used (Neupogen or
whatever - it stimulates the bone marrow to produce much more of them)
but it is not allowed as well in Europe for Hepatitis C treatment side
effects.

These are the reasons why a lot of doctors go for a Ribavirin dosage
reduction to keep anemia at bay.
But a dosage reduction _might_ decrease the effectiveness of treatment,
above all if it occurs before week 12.

Bottom line. I had a similar experience and I strongly suggest:

1. crawl out of this reduction as soon as you can. You're at week 6.
Probably it will do no harm if you start at full regimen after one week.
In order to do this, go in for a lab test, pay on your own (just blood
cells counts is what you need - 5 euros?), show the doctor that cell
counts improved and force him to give you back full dosage;

2. to try and avoid this happen again in the future: look after your
diet. Eat well and ask here or look around to set up a diet that could
help. Drink a lot of water (minimum: 2 liters/day), REST yourself MORE
than you used to do before;

3. if anemia shows up again: look for alternatives before dosage
reduction. In my case doctor prescribed Lederfolin (7,5 mg) later in
treatment and it HELPED _a lot_;

4. learn about treatment: read this NG posts -as they represent the REAL
experience of people like you- and search the Internet for serious
sources of information.

Do your best at it and good luck.

Cheers,
jeeb.